Co-founder of the Lowlands Community Garden, Elaine Christopher, recently joined Zen and La-Vaune on their chat show, Let’s Talk, on TV Carib. Watch the recording of their discussion, about healthy eating and why growing chemical free food on our island is so important, right here via our blog.
We recently spent some time in the studios of Island 92, the home of Rock, Blues and Good Time Radio in the Caribbean. While we were there, we recorded a short Public Service Announcement. You can listen to it on your computer using the player below. We hope you like it.
Please share with your friends and listen in to Island 92 on air or online.
The Lowlands Community Garden is the first non-profit organization on SXM to accept payments in Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer, digital currency which was introduced as an Open Source software in 2009. It is completely digital, which means it is stored and exchanged online. However, it does not mean you can’t get it exchanged into paper currency of your choice. It is called peer-to-peer currency because there is no regulatory authority or bank involved in the currency exchange. This short video explains what Bitcoins are and gives a little insight as to why we’re accepting them as payment for CSA memberships and for donations.
Contact Us to arrange to pay for your CSA membership in Bitcoin. We’ll email you with a QR code for you to use.
Use the QR code below to make a Bitcoin donation to the Lowlands Community Garden.
Bitcoin Address: 1W13k5BjjBkrE976aHhXXwZeWWpWNMQPC
Come along to Kooyman in Cay Hill this Saturday, June 7th, between 10am and 2pm and support our Wish List Drive by choosing one (or more) of the items we need for the Lowlands Community Garden, paying for it at the cashier and leaving it in our basket as you leave.
We’ll be accepting donations and you can sign up to become a CSA member. We’ll also have tickets for sale for our Summer Raffle for just $5. You might be the lucky winner and receive of 12 weeks of locally grown, non-GMO, chemical-free produce.
Visitors will have the opportunity to take a tour of our custom designed aquaponics systems that enable us to grow without chemical fertilizers or pesticides in more than 5,000 planting spaces and to raise tilapia in our 9,000 gallons of fish tank capacity. There will be non-GMO, chemical-FREE seeds, plants and produce for sale. You can also find out about CSA membership and enter our Summer Raffle for a chance to win 12 weeks of locally grown, non-GMO, chemical-FREE produce delivered to a collection point near you.
Contact us for directions or ask us on our Facebook Page.
Come to our Open Day on June 14th between 10am and 4pm.
Everybody loves a garden. Whether it’s a fragrant herb garden, a lush perennial border or an aquaponics system like ours, gardens touch the senses like nothing else. But not everybody loves what it takes to make a garden — hard work and the proper tools. And, of the two, it’s the tools that not only put us in touch with our gardens in the most intimate way, involving all the senses, but make the hard work that much easier!
Well, maybe not these tools…
Nowadays however, there are tools of all kinds, shapes and sizes that are readily available at our local hardware stores and, though no less valuable to gardeners and craftsmen, they are still an expensive part of the garden budget.
The Community Gardens Network on St. Maarten is in urgent need of tools and equipment in order to build and care for future community gardens all over the island. With this in mind, we are looking to build up a ‘Tool Pool’, so that whenever someone wants to start a community garden in their locality, we will have all the necessary tools available that we can donate to them on a loan basis, whenever they are needed.
So, if you or someone you know has a spare or unused, rake, spade, drill or cross-cut saw, then please consider donating them to our cause. Alternatively, you may like to donate to our ‘Tool Fund’, which will allow us to purchase the tools we need, whenever we need them.
Seeing our communities working together once again, growing food and sharing resources, would really be a dream come true and the formation of a Tool Pool will be the first step in making that vision a reality.
If you would like to donate some gardening equipment, spare or unused tools, or would like to make a donation to our Tool Fund, then contact us at admin@lowlandscommunitygarden.com with your telephone number and we’ll call you to arrange collection.
Here’s a list of some of the tools and equipment we need right now:
Drills and cordless drills
Circular saws
Jig saws
Hand saws
Chainsaws
Wire cutters
Grinders
Garden hoes
Rakes
Spades.
Forks
Trowels
Pruning shears
Ratchets
Screwdrivers
Hammers
Wheelbarrows
Step Ladders
Scaffolding
110v 3 pin extension leads – exterior grade
220v to 110v transformers with earth 1500w
Rolls of chicken wire 20′ x 48″
6 and 12″ zip ties
Plant pots (all sizes)
Gardening gloves
Compost
Shade cloth
Nails, screws and bolts
Early this morning 3 of our awesome volunteers met at the Lowlands Community Garden site to begin clearing the 6 years growth of weeds, brush and trees from inside the greenhouse. With machetes, saws and shears they cut and removed a huge amount in just 2 and a half hours. The cuttings are now piled outside ready to be chipped into the parking area that’s also on the list of areas to be cleared.
Do you have a chainsaw that you can either lend to us or bring along for our next volunteer work party?
The next scheduled work party will be on Saturday morning and will be starting even earlier at 7am to beat the heat. There’s plenty to do before 10, when it’ll be time to head to the beach to cool off with a swim. Let us know if you’d like to join us by completing the form below.
If you want to support us but can’t make it on Saturday, that’s OK too.
You can still help by spreading the word about our crowdfunding campaign and the Caribbean Dreams Contest in which everybody who funds our IndieGoGo campaign can enter to win a Dream Vacation on St. Maarten.
There are just 3 simple steps for a chance to WIN:
‘Share’ the post and
Firstly, we have now signed the contract, paid the deposit and first months rent on the Lowlands site, which means we are in possession of the keys and we had our first working group of volunteers visit the site on Saturday morning.
Our volunteers can now see for themselves what needs to be done in order to make our dream a reality; a fully-working 400sq. meter greenhouse and aquaponics facility! Register HERE to become a volunteer.
We continue to sign up new CSA members. We’ve now sold 35% of those available for our first 12 week ‘season’ that begins in January 2014. Book your CSA share HERE.
In addition, we have reached our first milestone with our Indiegogo ‘crowdfunding’ campaign. We passed $1000 mark and the donations continue to flow in. If you haven’t contributed yet, head over there now and join our growing team of supporters from all over the world.
It’s good news on the publicity front too. 
The Lowlands Community Garden was the subject of a full page article in the Saturday supplement in our local newspaper, the Daily Herald. We were also interviewed by a local cable TV company, who conducted the interview in our newly acquired and overgrown greenhouse. We’ll be posting the video as soon as we receive the link.
Also, last week, our first press release was re-printed in Dutch, in a newspaper from the island of Curacao. What a surprise!
Finally, our friends at Caribbean Weeks, are having a ‘St. Maarten Vacation Give Away Contest’. EVERYONE who makes a contribution to our campaign will get an entry for every dollar that they have given to our project and even those who have already contributed to our fund will be entered into the contest.
The awesome prizes include free accommodation, car rentals, excursions, nights out and of course, a free box of produce from Lowlands Community Garden!
So, there is much to be excited and delighted about, but of course, there’s still much more to do.
If you would like to join our team of supporters and make a real difference to the people on the island of St. Maarten, then make a donation to our cause TODAY!
All contributions will be greatly appreciated, no matter how big or small, and you could win your dream vacation too.
Just 5 mouse clicks and a $1 contribution to the Lowlands Community Garden could win you a Caribbean Dream Vacation courtesy of our wonderful friends at Caribbean Weeks. Why stop there when a $10 gives you 10 entries and a perk? For $50 you’ll get 50 entries and you can choose either an exclusive Lowlands Community Garden tee-shirt or a bumper box of our organic produce. The minimum contribution is just $1 but there’s no maximum.
Remember – every dollar you contribute will get you one entry and the sky’s the limit. Go for the BIG ONE, we’ll fly you to the island and you’ll have 10,000 chances to win the Caribbean Dreams St. Maarten Vacation too!
Check out the Caribbean Weeks website and go to the SXM CONTEST page for prize details.
The bumper sticker is as popular as ever in the 21st century and that’s why we’re including bumper stickers in our perks for our IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign. To get yours, just go to http://igg.me/at/lowlandscommunitygarden to make your contribution of $25 or more and GET BUMPERED today!
Here’s a little more about how bumper stickers have developed since they were first attached to a bumper…….
In 1927, Henry Ford changed the way we got from point A to point B. We replaced the horse and carriage with the Model A and then we quickly found a way to turn these metal contraptions into a new way to express our opinions. Henry Ford also did something else for us with the 
automobile. He put them out for thousands of people to purchase and as people began to have accidents, he added the bumper to provide some protection to the front and back of the car. Combine this bumper with America’s keenness to advertise almost anything and people had found a new way to advertise their products and ideas.
The first bumper “stickers” were made of cardboard and metal. These were then connected by wire and string. In fact, they looked more like a license plate than a sticker. Nevertheless, these were the forerunners of bumper stickers, as we know them today.
A change to the way bumper stickers were made would come later.
In 1934, a man called Forest P.Gill made ends meet by printing everything from signs to can labels all made from canvas. The prints were treated with chemicals to keep them from running and to withstand the weather. Gill realized that this process would be perfect for printing bumper stickers and the rest, as they say, is history. Read more HERE…………..
Lowlands Community Garden 
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